Tharivious

I felt that sting and I knew it was all over.  The arrow that found the keyhole in the facade of the monolith struck true, right to the core of me.  I could feel the venom right away, coursing through my veins, twisting my thoughts and warping my perspective against me.  I could feel the euphoric rush of adrenaline just as surely as I had when the first stir of warmth had entered my heart in the first place. It wasn't the arrow that had poisoned me.  No, the thought that the vulnerability to the world outside the monolith would be what destroyed me was the utmost of self-deception.  It wasn't the one who could find the keyhole that would be

It's funny how looking back can change things.  I find myself now, less than a month from turning thirty, and looking in the mirror.  It's my face I find looking back at me, but not the man I've become.  No, facing me I find the man I used to be.  The face of myself five, ten, and fifteen years ago.  The face of a man both in awe and disgust of who and what I've become.  I never thought I would wind up here, I expected so much more and so much different than this.  Part of me is ashamed, part of me exceedingly proud. I see the man from fifteen years ago – that fat, rotund teenager, the broken child within – and see awe-inspiring